Rise of the Republic

[Scottb]

Today I am happy to announce that my experiment using Alumilite, and from the research information I found on this board, I successfully made a pen blank using a print of a Republic of Texas One Hundred Dollar bill.

I used the molds from Mystic Molds. I did not use a pressure pot and had no bubbles in my work. The piece turned beautifully. I am pretty impressed with my first one. Whatcha think?

 

[Rick_G]

Nice job. Everything I have read said you need a pressure pot with Alumilite you have obviously proved that wrong.

 

[jttheclockman]

Looks good from here. Can we ask how did you handle the seam??? Maybe you can show a photo. Did you top coat it with anything before casting??? You said you used alumilite and did not use a pressure pot. Is that correct??? Thanks for showing and welcome to the site. You are off to a great start.

 

[Drewboy22]

That is a great looking pen. Congrats!

You had an excellent idea with that blank!! I know one person who would buy one if you ever made one to sell

 

[Scottb]

I was looking to get a pressure pot down the road, but the technique I used, which was from another member here, set me on the right path. I think the trick is when mixing, I mixed SSSLLLLOOOOOWWWWWLLYY using a large popsicle stick. I also heated up my mold in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes. When pouring into the mold, I poured on one side only for each blank and poured as slowly as I could. After I poured the resin, I monitored the few bubbles that did come up and using a thinner popsicle stick I moved the bubbles to the side. There weren't too many of them. Thirty six hours later I unmolded, trimmed, and turned the blank without issue.

For the image, I printed this bill out on my Epson photo printer on regular paper. A member mentioned using Mod Podge as an adhesive. So I went to the store and saw that there are tons of choices of Mod Podge. I bought the Dishwasher Safe Gloss. I pasted the back of the paper and rolled it carefully onto the tube. Once that dried, I coated the outside of the tube as well lightly and let that dry before I mounted it into the mold.

As for the seam, I found a circumference calculator online and measured the diameter of the tube to get my circumference. I input those values into Photoshop to get my canvas size. From there I just printed the image and glued it up. The seam is very hard to find.

 

[iMattDaddy]

Very impressive.

 

[magpens]

Well done !! . Welcome to IAP !!

 

[scotian12]

Congratulations, very well done. Darrell

 

[tomtedesco]

Thanks for the step by step process. great looking pen.

 

[kruzzer]

Wow.... the pen looks fantastic..

 

[Jack Parker]

Very nice pen, well executed. Thanks for the explanation of your process. Congrats on a job well done!

 

[vakmere]

The photography and pen are top shelf work. No shortage of talent here.

 

[ladycop322]

Beautiful Pen..can you tell me the name of the kit? I haven't seen one like that before...great choice too!

 

[MikeL]

Great job!

 

[avbill]

Was it a real 100 hundred bill or a copy. I have several twenty Republic of Texas bills

 

[avbill]

Michelle the kit's name is ultra cigar. Its from Berea.

 

[Scottb]

It is the Ultra Cigar Pen kit. The bill was not real. I printed it from the web in photoshop.

 

[Sappheiros]

You have good reason to be impressed! Nice!

 

[ossaguy]

Wow,that's super cool looking!





Steve

 

[Scottb]

Just to be sure I wasn't having beginners luck on my experiment with the mold casting, I made four more last night, and have two more curing now. The results have been the same so far. I am changing up my designs a bit. I'll post them up as soon as they are done. Thank you all for the kind words on my workmanship so far.

 

[Kdoc87]

That is a really awesome pen! I am just getting into casting myself and am interested in hearing the results in your casting Alumilite w/o pressure.

 

[Scottb]

Well as I posted previously, just mix and pour slowly and heat up the molds. If any bubbles to come about, use a small popsicle stick and move them to the side. So far I haven't had an issue whatsoever with this technique. Pretty happy about it too.